Brown Butter Cappuccino Chocolate Chunk Cookies with dark brown sugar, three types of chocolate, and a sprinkle of salt. These are rich, gooey, and the perfect combination of flavors!
Warning: damn good chocolate cookies coming at you from someone who lives for chocolate. You have been warned.
Your holiday gathering is about to get a whole lot better. If there’s one thing I know about this time of year, it’s that everyone is baking sweet treats. Between the combination of cold weather, lots of gatherings with friends and family, and pictures of sweets showing up all over social media… I crave warm baked treats every December. And if I’m going to go through the effort of making a dessert… it’s going to be something worthwhile.
I love these cookies. They’re slightly crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside, and packed with chocolate. They’re also addictive, and you may want to hoard them for yourself. I put a bunch in a baggie and hid them from my family. Yes, I am that type of person.
The secret that makes these cookies so darn good: brown butter. Butter gets cooked until it’s lightly browned, and takes on nutty and toasty notes. It only takes a matter of minutes, and I love the complex flavors that it adds. Don’t skip this step. Browned butter, dark brown sugar, chocolate, coffee… so many good things. Now, some instructions that will help you become a brown butter master.
How To Make Brown Butter
Making brown butter: step 1.
Step 1: heat a pan over medium heat. (Make sure the bottom of the pan is silver, not dark, or you won’t see the change in color.) Add butter, stirring constantly until melted.
Step 2: the foamy stage.
Step 2: the melted butter will start to foam. Keep stirring constantly! Do not adjust the heat.
Step 3: so many bubbles. Keep stirring!
Step 3: lots of bubbles. Once the foam stops, the butter will continue to produce lots of bubbles. It will seem like nothing is changing, but keep watching and stirring constantly, because the change happens very quickly. After about a minute, you’ll notice a nutty smell and some small light brown flecks appear at the bottom of the pan. Keep stirring until the butter is light brown (it should only be a few seconds) and immediately remove it from the heat and pour it into a separate bowl.
Step 4: delicious brown butter.
Step 4: congratulations! You’ve just made brown butter!
More About These Cookies
Feel free to use any type of chocolate that you like. I’m a sucker for variety and like to keep things interesting with different shapes and cocoa content.
Chill the dough. This step isn’t optional. I’m impatient and skip all steps that are unnecessary. The dough needs to chill so it can thicken up, otherwise the cookies will be a flat mess. After making browned butter and chopping up 15 lbs of chocolate, we can’t let that effort go to waste. Let the dough chill.
Enjoy! These are sure to be a hit, and will stand out on any table filled with holiday desserts.
Brown Butter Cappuccino Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Dark brown sugar, coffee, three types of chocolate, and a sprinkle of salt join to form the ultimate crispy, gooey, and rich cookies.
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 whole egg, room temperature
- 1 egg yolk, room temperature
- 3 Starbucks VIA packets Can sub 1 1/2 tbsp instant coffee powder
- 2 cups chocolate chunks/chopped chocolate See recipe notes
- flaky salt for topping
Instructions
To brown the butter:
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Place butter in a medium saucepan (with a silver bottom, not dark/teflon or you won't see the color change) over medium heat. Whisk butter as it melts. Continue to whisk as the melted butter becomes almost foamy. Keep whisking, and don't walk away from the pan. The butter foam will eventually settle and the butter will continue to bubble. Keep whisking! Eventually you'll notice the butter will start to brown and there will be a nutty aroma. Once butter is browned and smells nutty, immediately remove from heat and pour into another bowl. This process happens fast and you don't want it to burn!
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Take bowl of butter and set it in the fridge to cool down while you get out and prepare the rest of the ingredients. The butter should cool until it's warm (or room temperature) but certainly not hot.
To prepare the cookies:
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In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt. Set aside.
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Combine both sugars and browned butter in mixer bowl with whisk attachment. (The butter should still be melted, but not super hot.) Whisk on high for 20 seconds. Scrape down walls with a spatula, then add room temperature egg, additional yolk, and vanilla. Whisk on high for 30 seconds. Scrape down sides. Add Starbucks VIA or coffee powder and whisk on high again. The mixture should now be thick, glossy, and completely combined (with small coffee specks).
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Switch mixer from whisk attachment to paddle attachment. Slowly add in flour mixture, about half a cup at a time. Use spatula to scrape sides and bottom of mixer bowl when necessary. Mix until flour mixture is just combined, but do not over mix. Add in chocolate chunks and then chill dough for at least two hours in the refrigerator (I prefer overnight for convenience).
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Scoop dough into 1 1/2" balls and bake on parchment paper for 12-14 minutes. Top each cookie with a pinch of flaky salt immediately after removing from oven.
Recipe Notes
Chocolate note: I think this tastes best with a variety of chocolate types and sizes. I use a combination of dark chocolate (64%) chunks, a chopped semisweet chocolate bar, and chopped super dark (85%) chocolate.
Love cookies?? Whether they be sweet & salty, or filled with chocolate & cardamom, you need to try these next!
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